Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to legalize gay marriage, has become the first to challenge the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, saying Congress intruded into a matter that should be left to individual states.

Massachusetts was also the first state, in 2003, to grant gay couples the right to marry; five other states — Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont — have since followed. The challenge, filed in United States District Court here, comes as President Obama and Congress face increasing pressure from gay rights groups to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Ms. Coakley, a Democrat, said the act interfered with states’ rights to define and regulate marriage as they saw fit. While same-sex couples can marry in Massachusetts — Ms. Coakley said more than 16,000 have done so — they are denied federal benefits like Social Security survivors’ payments, the right to file taxes jointly and guaranteed leave from work to care for a sick spouse.

“We cannot and should not be required to violate the equal-protection rights of our citizens in Massachusetts who choose to be married,” Ms. Coakley said, adding that the act forced the state “to disregard the marriages of same-sex couples when implementing federally funded programs.”

This is a milestone. To say the least. I cannot believe this!
Normally I would put this somewhere NOT debate, but I have a feeling even a miniscule of controversy may come out in our discussion.

I think the movement has deffinately progressed in America, but look at the whole world! What about Iraq? Russia? (And what of woman's rights?!) The movement has a looong way to go from here internationaly.

But things are looking up here in America. Especialy now with Obama in office.

That was me who said that. And I don't give a damn about same-sex marriage being recognized by state governments; it's time for it to be recognized by federal governments. And that's not going to happen while Obama and the Supreme Court are both too chicken-shit to touch the issue with a ten-foot pole.

You must not have read the link then, because they are suing the Federal Government.

Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to legalize gay marriage, has become the first to challenge the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, saying Congress intruded into a matter that should be left to individual states.

There is no way to hide from it, there is no way this won't make an impact.

I know they're suing the federal government. Do you know just how many times this has been done? Anyway, the Supreme Court refused to hear the latest challenge to DOMA; the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's case was effectively rejected. Let me assure you that I know what's going on in politics at any given point in time, and this newest case is going to go effectively nowhere. No one's man enough to deal with it.

Of course it won't make an impact. And how sad is it that those who are man enough to deal with overwhelming governmental change are those not allowed to work for our government, much less our military?

What I am most worried about now is repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I know that that is something the Obama administration is working on right now, and I think that that should be the focus of advocates right now; not marrigae issues. I'm not saying that marriage equality isn't importaint, but equal voting rights should take presidence.

LIV4TheObsession wrote:What I am most worried about now is repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I know that that is something the Obama administration is working on right now...

o rly.

Last I heard, the Obama administration wasn't interested in doing anything until 2010; he wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs and such. What the hell does he think they're going to tell him? In any case, he really can't do much on that even if he actually did want to fulfill his campaign promise. It takes an act of Congress.